Joe Carlino's goal with 8:11 left gives East Islip boys a tie with West Islip
Charlie Basini scored West Islip's second goal on a header in a tie at 2 with Suffolk II rival East Islip on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
The clock was relentlessly ticking on East Islip, down a goal with now under 10 minutes left in regulation on rival West Islip’s turf in an important soccer match in the race for Suffolk AA playoff tickets.
Joe Carlino had one thought.
“I was like, 'We need a miracle to score,' ” the East Islip junior striker said. “Then we found a way.”
Jayden Torres headed the ball and Carlino kicked it in from about 10 yards out — tying the score at 2 with 8:11 remaining. And after 100 minutes of competition, including two 10-minute overtime periods, that’s the way it ended Friday.
“East Islip, West Islip, I wouldn’t expect anything less than what we got today,” East Islip coach Greg Johnson said. “Two teams just emptied the tanks.”
So East Islip is 4-5-4 overall and in Suffolk II and West Islip is 5-4-4. Both need to be at least .500 in the league to reach the postseason. Both have three games left.
“We can only lose one,” Johnson said, “It doesn’t kill us. A win would’ve helped us, obviously. But it’s a good tie in a way, a tie against a West Islip team that’s always difficult to play against, and they’re well coached.”
Lions coach Dennis Mazzalonga was also good with it, saying, “A draw is amazing for us right now. After earlier in the week, with the tough loss to Comsewogue (2-1 in double overtime), getting this one point was huge today.”
West Islip is a walking advertisement for what can happen if you can just make the playoffs. The Lions went all the way to the final last year as the 11th seed before falling to ninth-seeded Comsewogue.
Mazzalonga said it “shows that anything can be done no matter where you fall in the seeding if you do get in.
“You’ve got to be in it to win it.”
East Islip led 1-0 at halftime after Carlino perfectly led Chase Engel for a goal from in close.
The Lions countered with two headers — Peyton Bianca from Charlie Mastroberti to equalize and Charlie Basini from Joe Heins for the lead.
But Carlino sent it to sudden death, a familiar setting for West Islip. It’s now 2-2-4 in OT.
“Eight overtimes is a lot,” Mazzalonga said. “Close games are definitely going to help us if we do get into the playoffs. You get that adversity and you learn to overcome it.”
